Screen: 'Age of Medici,' Trilogy by Rossellini:First Family of Florence

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IN the very last scene of "The Age of the Medici," Roberto Rossellini's extraordinary trilogy about the great Florentine family of the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti, the architect, is lecturing the young Lorenzo de Medici, the grandson of Cosimo de Medici who would one day be known to history as Lorenzo the Magnificent. "Why do we live in such a marvelous time?" Alberti asks, and then answers, "Because we wish to be intelligent."I suspect that Alberti comes very close to being a spokesman for the Roberto Rossellini some of us came to know in the last years of his life when he was engaged in the production of a series of remarkable films for television designed to record, with as little artifice and editorial comment as possible, the ideas and the events that give direction to Western civilization. When he died three years ago, Rossellini had completed 40 hours of films in this series, two of which, "Socrates" and "The Rise of Louis XIV," have been commercially released in this country."The Age of the Medici," which consists (in chronological order) of "Cosimo de Medici," "The Power of Cosimo" and "Leon Battista Alberti: Humanism," is now being presented at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. "Cosimo de Medici" is playing through Sunday; "The Power of Cosimo," Tuesday through May 13, and "Leon Battista Alberti," May 15-20. My only quibble with the Public Theater's presentation is that it's not possible — should one wish it — to see the three films in a marathon (four hours and 12 minutes) screening, plus appropriate intermissions.The films are not difficult and certainly they are not ambiguous. However, their austere style, as well as Rossellini's total lack of concern for what might be called performance, take some getting used to. Yet once you've grasped the method and the rhythm of the films, they are a ravishingly beautiful experience that shouldn't be interrupted.More than "Socrates" and much more than "The Rise of Louis XIV," the Medici films speak most eleoquently of what was on Rossellini's mind when he turned away from the commercial cinema to what he called, for lack of any suitable euphemism, teaching films. In his book, "Un Esprit Libre," published in France the year he died, he devoted a chapter to what he saw as the need for "an integral education," meaning a kind of continuing, all-round education by which modern man would be freed from the terrible dangers of specialization, which he saw as as another form of ignorance. "We are neither ants, nor bees, nor spiders," he wrote, "and yet we have become regimented, stereotyped. . . ."Rossellini's impatience with contemporary education was founded on his belief that most educational systems have the effect of "fixing and maintaining" what is already established in a society. He also found ridiculous educational methods that fill brains with facts while suffocating all interest into the why's of life and the world.In "The Age of the Medici" Rossellini documents the explosion in the sciences and the arts in the Renaissance under the influence of the Medicis, the quintessential bourgeois family whose banking and business interests shaped the economic, political and social life of what became the modern world.In these films we see Cosimo wheeling and dealing to bring an end to a costly and foolish war, not because of moral reasons but because war is bad for business. Cosimo is not above bribery, conspiracy and murder in what he deems the public interest, which is also his. When necessary, the church is available to sanctify skulduggery. The arts are patronized, the past is examined for what it can yield to the present, and an unbiased science is a universal discipline.Though the trilogy takes the name of the Medicis, Leon Battista Alberti is its most important figure. Alberti is the true Renaissance man, an architect, scholar, humanist, a fellow who never stopped seeking, inquiring, speculating, someone, clearly, whom Rossellini could identify with.The visual style of "The Age of the Medici" is modestly elegant. Shot in color and 16 millimeter, mostly in and around Florence, the films have a form dictated by their function, which is to tell us as much as possible, as efficiently as possible, about the life and thought of the times.The actors make few attempts to act. They recite as they walk about magnificent locations, sounding and looking like ferociously gifted dress-extras. The talk has been rather flatly dubbed into English so that it's not always possible to tell who is speaking.Forget these problems, though. The film is about what is being said and what you can see around and behind these figures. When you connect with "The Age of the Medici," it has the effect of reducing every other film you've seen recently to the status of an ornament.

First Family of Florence

THE AGE OF THE MEDICI (in three parts of 84 minutes each), directed by Roberto Rossellini; written by Mr. Rossellini, Luciano Scaffa and Marcella Mariani; photographed by Mario Montuori; edited by Jolanda Benvenuti; music by Manuel De Sica. Presented at the Public Theater by Joseph Papp in association with the FDM Foundation for the Arts, 425 Lafayette Street.Cosimo de Medici . . . . . Marcello di FalcoLeon Battista Alberti . . . . . Virginio Gazzolo

A version of this review appears in print on May 3, 1979 of the National edition with the headline: Screen: 'Age of Medici,' Trilogy by Rossellini:First Family of Florence. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe